Flooding does not yet cause damage

Appeared on Twitter last Friday and Saturday impressive photos of flooded potato plots. In the end, it all turned out not too bad, as affected arable farmers look back. Sunday was a beautiful and dry day. Due to appropriate action, the water was discharged quickly. This mainly concerned low-lying parts of the plot where water remained.

Flooding very local
Fortunately, as far as we know, there was no damage after the rain last Friday and Saturday. In places the meter rose to over 70 millimeters. On Saturday afternoon, parts of East Flevoland and the Noordoostpolder still experienced heavy precipitation, when a rain front passed over with thunder. The showers have a very local character. For example, one grower reported 80 millimeters, while a few kilometers further only 2 millimeters fell. In the end there was no damage. The previously harvested onion land in particular was flooded.

Text continues below the chart.Precipitation in the month of September 2017.

Damage picture unclear
Arable farmer Nico Rodenburg from Zwartewaal was digging in his potato plots early on Saturday morning to remove 74 millimeters of land. "On Sunday morning the water between the ridges was gone. However, that was not the case everywhere, so I heard." 

Fellow grower Leen Vos in West Brabant was in the field with the mini crane. "On Saturday the rain wasn't too bad and yesterday it subsided," he says. "It is difficult to say now whether there is damage. The temperature is actually quite high, so the potatoes rot more quickly. We will assess the crops towards the weekend."

Soil saturated
Potato grower William Brooymans, who also farms in West Brabant, also thinks that things will go smoothly. "I have sloping plots, so the water runs to the lowlands. Digging with a tap looks drastic, but it works better than with a shovel. The 57 millimeters that fell was not extreme, but most of it fell in one afternoon. A while back, 1 millimeters also fell, making the ground saturated. The buffer in the ground is smaller than in Flevoland, for example." There is no word yet on damage. "It's still early, so there's not much panic. I don't see any harvesters driving around yet," he says.

Rain on Potato Europe
On Monday, September 11, it will not be too bad with the reported rain. There is a lot of precipitation on the forecast, especially for Wednesday and Thursday. Exactly when potato growing Netherlands travels to Emmeloord. A lot of water fell there too. Next week promises calmer and drier weather for the time being.

Photo: Potato Europe (@PotatoEurope)

Update September 12:
Monday afternoon there was a lot of excitement, especially in North Holland. A bucket of water also fell in Friesland. The result was that arable farmers were once again left with the shovel in the field. The end is not yet in sight. There was literally a lot of rumbling in the southwest.

Tweets from September 11: